Sometimes, but not often, my penchant for thrift outweighs my basic need for self-preservation. Today was a perfect example.

Pianist Jason Lindner is visiting the WBGO performance studio this afternoon to record a session with his Now vs. Now band (Avishai Cohen, Panagiotis Andreou, Mark Guiliana, and Baba Israel). This is their first studio recording. Everyone but the drummer is using electronic processing, which means we need direct boxes to record them. Seven of them. WBGO owns two, and one is broken. That's the background story.

It's 14 degrees in New York this morning, with a wind chill near zero. Zed. Nil. Cold enough to freeze the breath from my nose onto my facial hair.

We typically rent whatever instrument equipment (like direct boxes and extra instrument cables) from Carroll Music. They're at 625 55th Street, between 11th Avenue and the Hudson River. Which is nowhere near public transportation. So after a nice trek from Columbus Circle, I was hurting from the wind shear coming off the Hudson. I arrive, only to pick up a giant metal case with our equipment weighing approximately 45 pounds. No wheels. Sweet.

After I schlepp everything back 58th Street, I walk into the subway entrance. I wobble past the NYPD as they're checking some poor guy's briefcase (but never consider stopping me, a very large man in black with a sizable case that I'm clearly struggling to tote).

Long story short. I'm in Newark. I saved 150 bucks in cartage costs. Well, 75 bucks so far. And I have some killer forearms now.